The Torture of Bernard O’Connor in 1977 – by Joe McVeigh

It is a miracle that Bernard O’Connor is still alive. If the once all-powerful RUC and their loyalist friends had their way Bernard O’Connor would have been dead long ago. On 8^th April 1985, a young man named Martin Love (24 years old) was shot dead on Factory Road in Enniskillen. The killers thought he was Bernard O’Connor. They were known and eventually brought to court.

When you read or hear the facts of the brutal torture of Bernard in Castlereagh in 1977, you can only admire the strength and courage of this man. When you read or listen to his story you realise the evil and corrupt State that Catholics were forced to live in and accept because they had no power to change it.  You also see the kind of police (RUC) employed to uphold this corrupt state and deal with those suspected of being enemies of the state. Many young men had been arrested and tortured. Others were intimidated for any show of Irish republican sympathies. Flying the Irish national flag-the Tricolour- was enough to get you arrested and brought before the court.  

During 3 days in January 1977, Bernard O’Connor was tortured by the RUC Special Branch, in their Torture Centre at the Castlereagh Holding Centre in East Belfast.

From the time he was arrested on Thursday morning 20^th January 1977 until his release on Sunday night 23^rd January 1977, he underwent 17 sessions of interrogation and torture at the hands of the RUC Special Branch. Because of his strong faith in God and his personal strength of character, he survived this painful torture – and he has lived to tell the tale.

When you read his story, it makes you wonder what kind of human beings these RUC men were or if they had lost all sense of being human and were just like the Nazis totally committed to totalitarian Unionist rule in the 6 counties.

In his book ‘Freeing the Truth’; Bernard gives a graphic account of his torture at the hands of the RUC. 

He also relates the devastating effect this experience had on his family and marriage. His wife Pat (since deceased) and children were deeply affected by the whole experience.

During the 3 days of torture, the RUC Special branch wanted him to confess to being a member of the IRA and to admit to being involved in certain military activities. Bernard refused to admit and suffered for not co-operating.

This is a harrowing story. It is a true story and we are glad that Bernard lived to tell the tale.

I would like to put Bernard’s story in context.

The Civil Rights movement which took to the streets in 1968 was a movement to achieve equal rights for the Catholic/Nationalist/republican section of the population in the Six counties.

By 1977 the British army and the local police, the RUC, had killed many nationalists and Catholics in order to defeat the resistance of the Nationalist/Republican people to the unjust Unionist government. This government had ruled since the statelet was founded in 1921 by an Act of the British parliament. It was kept in place by a system of discrimination against Catholics and by a policy of gerrymandering which ensured Unionist supremacy in the 6 counties of northeast Ireland. 

The Dublin political establishment -both FF and FG -accepted the 1921 Treaty signed by some representatives of the Republican movement. The Treaty which was approved by a narrow majority of the Sinn Fein members elected brought about Partition and a six county state controlled by the British government in Westminster.

This settlement was tolerated by the Nationalist population in the six counties until the 1960s when a civil rights movement organised to demand their basic rights. 

Bernard O Connor, a local teacher in a Catholic school, was one of the leaders in the movement for civil rights. He was a prominent speaker at protests and rallies. The RUC targeted him because he was a person of influence in the community.

Four years before Bernard was arrested, my cousin, Michael Leonard, was shot dead by members of the RUC on 17 May 1973. Michael was shot dead by the RUC near the border as he made his way home to Tievemore Pettigo. Just after he was killed the RUC and British army put out several statements saying he was a member of the Provisional IRA and that his father was also a member of PIRA. They tried to justify his murder. Michael, a farmer and cattle dealer in Donegal was a completely innocent young man preparing to get married.

Some weeks later on 5th June 1973, an RUC man called David Purvis (22years) based in Enniskillen was shot and killed by members of the IRA on Belmore Street in Enniskillen. David Purvis was the 38^th RUC man to be shot in the so-called Troubles. Once again British propaganda stated that his killing was ‘probably in retaliation for the shooting of Michael Leonard’ by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The insinuation once again was that Michael was a member of the IRA.

In 1978, an Enniskillen man was acquitted of the killing of the RUC man. He was also accused and convicted of attempting to murder a UDR man and of being a member of the IRA.

This is how British propaganda works.

An innocent man, Michael Leonard, is shot dead. The British propaganda says he was a member of the IRA and therefore his killing was justified. Then, when an RUC man was shot in Enniskillen a few weeks later, British propaganda linked the killing with that of my cousin Michael Leonard.

When Bernard was being questioned the RUC tried to link him to the killing of the RUC man on Belmore Street. Another man I know was brought in to Enniskillen RUC barracks and beaten savagely. He was told we know you shot our colleague in Belmore Street. There was no evidence whatsoever to connect him to the killing.

We are glad that Bernard O’Connor has left us an account of his torture and the trauma suffered by his wife and family. It throws much light on the kind of corrupt state we lived in as a result of Partition.